Calgary hikers share ‘really cool’ images of Kananaskis grizzly bears

“Very human-like” is how Mujtaba Khawaja describes a family of grizzly bears that he and his friend Rocco Rennie spotted walking along Highway 742, also known as the Smith-Dorrien Trail, west of Calgary.

The two Calgarians were driving on the highway on May 7 on their way to go hiking in Kananaskis Country when they spotted the family of four bears from a distance walking side by side along the edge of the road.

“We immediately stopped and I started filming the bear family and it was a really cool moment — they walked past our car and went behind the car and we were still filming the bears,” said Khawaja. “They were also very curious about us.”

That’s when the encounter took a surprising turn.

“She (Rennie) was filming and the bears were kind of like walking and stopping and looking behind, you know, peeking behind. (Then) one bear cub stood on his hind legs and kind of walked like 10 feet or so. So that was really cool and then he went back on all fours,” said Khawaja.

“Very human-like. That took us by surprise, and we were just laughing and we’re just really surprised to see it.”

“I’ve seen bears before, but, you know, seeing one walk on hind legs, that was the first time,” Khawaja added.

The Calgarians eventually continued on their way to go hiking, unaware that, later in the day, they’d see the bears again.

“The hike was five hours long, and then on her way back, we saw the same bears again and they were being escorted by rangers,” said Khawaja.

The video of the second encounter shows the bears trotting past the Calgarians’ vehicle with a pickup truck, driven by an Alberta conservation officer, following close behind.

“So yeah, we saw them twice in the same day,” said Khawaja.

When contacted by Global News, the Department of Forestry and Parks sent an email that said conservation officers and Alberta Parks staff “are very familiar” with the bears and that they are not considered to be of any concern.

The department said, “the bear is commonly spotted in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park” (in Kananaskis Country) and “it is common for conservation officers to escort bears along the road to ensure both visitor and wildlife safety: this helps alert drivers to wildlife on the road and allows staff to monitor the bear’s activity and ensure they make it to a safe area.”

While many people who have viewed the video online have said it appears to be AI-generated, Khawaja said he’s “annoyed” by the suggestion.

“I got kind of defensive, you know, but a lot of people, they saw it as real footage. Most people believe it to be real bear footage.”

 

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